Did they say that it’ll be the other sides billions, not theirs? I am so jaded that this discussion doesn’t feel right without someone saying that their people will prosper after they nuke everyone else. With some bullshit that obviously the other sides nukes won’t work but all of theirs will.
I don’t disagree with your criticisms of the UN. They’re not a perfect organization, and UN membership shouldn’t be some standard of sovereignty. However, diplomats have always been able to talk whenever they want, the problem that the League of Nations and then the UN tried to address was all the backrooms conversations nations used to have that were part of the causes that lead up to the first world war. Having an international platform every nation needs to at least listen to is better than the alternative. Arguably, untill now the UN has succeeded, there hasn’t been a WWIII.